Delustering of textiles



Patented Oct. 13, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DELUSTERING F TEXTILES William H. Alton, New York, N. Y., and Hilton Ira Jones, Wilmette,

111., assignors to R. T.

Vanderbilt Co., Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York No Drawing. Application December 14, 1934,

, Serial No. 757,466

Claims.

This invention relates to the treatment of fibers, and particularly those of natural or artificial silk or cotton, in order to impart thereto a different appearance or surface character and particularly to effect delustering.

Various different processes have been proposed for the treatment of artificial or natural silk in order to delu'ster it, but with most such processes there iseither an undesirable loading of the tex-" tile or'a pigmenting which causes a slight change in color or shade, particularly of dark colored fabrics or fibers.

Our improved process includes the use of two baths used in succession and containing such inv gredients as will react and form an insoluble stearate upon the surface of the fibers 'so that the luster may be destroyed or very materially.

reduced, without causing any appreciable change in the color or shade.

We have discovered that any suitable dye may be applied and incorporated in the insoluble stearate so as to impart to-the silk the desired color or shade.- Although various difierent types of stearates may be employed, we preferably employ those of aluminum and the rare earth metals.

As an example of the-manner in which the process may be carried out, the textile fabric may be caused to first pass through a bath containing a soluble stearate suchas ordinary soap, and a a which may be of any desired concentration, but

preferably in the neighborhood of 2%; The textile fabric is thereafter caused to pass through a bath containing a saltof a suitable metal which will unite with the soap to form an insoluble stearate.- This-salt is not necessarily but is preferably an acetate, and is preferably an acetate or formate of aluminum and an acetate of a rare earth metal or a mixture of rare earth metals.

This solution may be of about 4% concentration.

In certain processes, for instance that disclosed in our prior Patent No. 1,975,493, as well as in' In that event an emulsion of benton For the soap solution we prefer a pure coconut oil soap, although almost any type of soap will provide the desired result. As an example of solution No. 1, two parts by weight of soap may be dissolved inv98 parts of water. 5

Solution No. 2 may be made in the following proportions by volume:

Parts 20% aluminum acetate 1 22% clear rare earth acetate /2 0 Water 98% When it is required to somewhat weight or fill the fabric solution No. l is made with I Parts 15 Soap I 7.4 Water 246.5 Pigment 11.5

Solution No. 2 is then made of the following, the parts being byweight: 20

' Parts 20% aluminum acetate solution 5 22% rare earth solution 5 Water 90 When a still heavier application is necessary, 25 either for silk or cotton fibers, solution No. 2 may be'ccmposed of the dilution of a paste made of Parts Beeswax 6 3o Soap 5 Water p 55 Dry pigment. 4 Eggv al umen /2 60% paste of rare earth metal salts 21 35 Zinc acetate powder 2 20% aluminum acetate solution 50 22% clear solution of rare earth metal salts- 12 This paste is diluted with water to a suspension 40 containing from 10% to 50% solids as required 1 to bring about the required degree of weighting or filling.

The amount of the insoluble stearate formed on the surface of the fibers may be readily controlled in various ways. For instance the textile, after passing through the first or soap bath, may pass between a pair of squeeze rolls which will reduce the amount of the soap solution in the'textile fabric to a minimum, or to any desired degree.

The textile may then pass directly into a bath containing the second solution, and a second pair of squeeze rolls may remove the excess of free acetate.

Although preferably the fabric passes directly from one bath or the first squeeze rolls into the second bath, it may be rolled up after the treatnient with soap and later unrolled and passed through the second bath. It is preferable that the fabric shall not become thoroughly dried between the successive baths, although such drying does not prevent the reaction of the soluble acetate with the soluble stearate to form the insoluble stearate.

If it is desired to dye the fabric at the same time, the insoluble dye may be incorporated in one of the baths, and preferably in the soap bath, so that the dye will become uniformly distributed throughout the very minute film of insoluble stearate which is formed on the surface of the fibers.

The pigments used may include the carbons or lamp blacks, titanium, zirconium, silicates of alumina, lithopone, zinc, bentonite and china clays. We preferably use bentonite because of its qualities of not quickly settling to the bottom of suspensions such as the above.

The process may be employed not only for the treatment of artificial or natural silk cloth, but may be employed for the treatment of threads or even articles which have been made from the threads, fibers or cloth.

By the term "stearates we do not necessarily mean that the soluble soap bath or the final insoluble film includes only stearates, as it may likewise include salts of other analogous fatty acids, and in fact soluble soaps may be employed which include compounds of the fatty acid series with little or no stearates. The term stearate" as used herein is to be interpreted as including other analogous fatty acid soaps.

We are aware that insoluble stearates have been employed for the rendering of textile fabrics and other materials substantially waterproof, but so far aswe are aware, it was not heretofore known that artificial or natural silks may be delustered in the manner hereinbefore described. If soap and aluminum stearate be used with silk or rayon they will deluster them to a certain extent, but the luster returns after dry cleaning treatment, whereas, the combination of rare earth with aluminum acetate produces a delustering effect which remains after one or more dry cleanings.

The usual loading and filling of textiles is brought about by the application of pigments suspended in adhesives such as glues, or starches, most of which will not withstand washing in soap and water, and which mold and mildew because of the vegetable starches and gum used, whereas,

our process is a chemical reaction in which the insoluble stearates are liberatedand precipitated onto the fibers carrying with them the pigment used, and which are thereafter more or less immune from mildew and mold because of the rare earths which act as mildew proofing, and which process is particularly sanitary in the case of shoe linings or other fabrics subjected to perspiration and consequent decomposition and mildew.

The stearate formed on the surface of the fibers is insoluble not only in ordinary water, but also in the ordinary cleaning solutions which are often employed for the cleaning of silken garments, and therefore silk which has been delustered by our process may be washed or dry cleaned without restoring the luster.

We have referred to the use of two solutions as baths through which the fibers pass, but it will be obvious that the solutions might be applied to the fibers in other ways, for instance by spray- Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Pat ent is:

1. The process of delustering silk which includes treating it with a soluble stearate and a colloidal mineral, and thereafter with an acetate of a rare earth metal. a

2. The process of delustering silk which includes treating it with a-soluble stearate and Bentonite, and thereafter with an acetate of a rare earth metal.

3. The process of treating artificial or natural silk fibers or cotton, which includes subjecting them to the action of a soap solution, a colloidal mineral, and a compound which will react with a soap to form an insoluble compound on the surface of the fibers.

4. The process of delustering artificial or natural silk fibers, which'includes subjecting them to the action of a soap solution and colloidal barium sulphate, a pigment, and a compound which will react with the soap to form an insoluble compound on the surface of the fibers.

5. The process of delustering artificial or natural silk fibers, which consists in subjecting them to the action of a solution of a soluble soap and bentonite, and thereafter with a solution of an acetate of a rare earth metal which forms with the soluble soap an insoluble stearate acting to retain the bentonite on the flbersand substantially prevent the dissolving out of the bentonite after drying. Y

- WILLIAM H. ALTON. HILTON IRA JONES. 

